


Sleigh Ride

by melonbutterfly



Category: Star Trek RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-13
Updated: 2009-12-13
Packaged: 2017-10-13 00:10:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/130677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbutterfly/pseuds/melonbutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chris sees the end of the world coming in a dream.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleigh Ride

Chris sees the end of the world coming in a dream.

He doesn't see clear pictures, any kind of information to gauge what is really going on, but he sees enough. Enough to know, enough to know the gist of it.

He wakes up to a boiling sky.

There is no other way to describe it; the clouds are a coiling, noiselessly-roaring mess of greys and blacks and whites, and it makes the world look eerie and unreal. It reminds him of the feeling he had that one time he had high fever, so very high, and woke up and lay staring at the wall, unmoving for hours before he noticed he was awake.

It is the same feeling, now, he thinks as he sits up to twilight and shadows and pale, artificial light.

He takes a breath, and it tastes loud and empty.

There's many things he could or perhaps even should be doing right now, he thinks; call his sister or parents or friends, tell them what is going on. At least tell them he loves them (even if it's not always true), get his affairs into order.

Butt here isn't much sense to it, he figures. They're not going to start believing him now when they never did before; especially not with such a message. And it's not even like that matters, he thinks and takes another loud, empty breath.

Actually, it's relieving. Suddenly, now that the rest of his life has distilled into just a fistful of hours, everything seems very easy.

He doesn't call his parents or sister or friends, doesn't get his affairs into order.

Instead, he turns around and shakes Zach awake, tells him to go get dressed, that they're going out. It was snowed a few days previous, and it has stayed cold enough none of the snow has molten into ice. Chris thinks it's never going to melt now, except in that moment when everything, everyone dies. That, he thinks, is pretty much alright.

Zach had complained at first because Chris woke him up early, but Chris bought him coffee and donuts on the way to the mountain, and the caffeine and sugar raised his mood. He doesn't complain anymore, just follows Chris out of the car and then helps him pull the sleigh up the hill. One of the things that made Chris the happiest about Zach is that he was always so willing to go along with Chris' ideas.

It still makes him happy, and also calm and content, but that might also be the knowledge, or just Zach. Actually, it's probably Zach.

They arrive on top of the hill, and there's a day old tracks of other sleighs, of children's boots and snowball fights.

Today, they're alone, though. Chris knows why, but Zach doesn't; they haven't listened to the radio or the TV, and Chris has steered them away from anything that might tell.

Before Zach can ask him what's going on now, Chris turns to look at him, just looks at him and thinks, _this is the men I spent the rest of my life with._

It's a good thought, and he opens his mouth and says, "The world is going to end today."

It takes Zach a couple of moments to take that in. Several times he looks like he wants to say something, but he doesn't, and Chris watches the emotions and thoughts play over his face.

In the end, Zach turns away and looks at what of the world they can see from on top of the hill. He takes a breath, calm and shallow because the air is too cold for real deep breaths, turns back to Chris and says, "Let's sleigh ride."

They ride down the hill and walk up again, and after only three tries they have rediscovered the perfect way to sleigh ride: quick and fast the way down, and land in a way that throws them off the sleigh face first. They do this every year, just like that, and they remember the right way to lean very quick by now.

When their legs get tired from walking up the hill, their lungs burning with the icy air, they take a break. The sky is still boiling without a sound, and Chris knows that now the rest of the world knows as well. They tried very hard not to hear the noise from the city, not to taste the panic and fear in the air. Now, they're sitting with their backs to the city, cold seeping in through their wet clothes, and the sky stops being noiseless.

Chris sits next to Zach and thinks of the bananas in the fruit bowl that are more brown than yellow now, of the unpaid gas bill lying on the counter. He sits next to Zach and watches their breath turn into clouds, meshing before dissipating, and thins that this is a good day.


End file.
